Article by: Lieutenant Colonel John Foley, US Army, Retired

Russia’s active measures campaign to
destabilize the Western democracies has received a lot of attention
since 2016, yet nobody has discussed how it affected the US military.
This is an important question for NATO and Eastern European allies since
the US military leads the multinational effort to defend Eastern
European allies from Russia, and the US military’s ability to resist
Russia’s active measures is of utmost importance to everyone concerned.

The Oath Keepers and Three Percenters groups
in the US army are now subversive elements who view Putin’s Russia with
greater respect. Failure to act will only further erode the NATO
alliance and the militaries of Eastern Europe’s sense of mission and
purpose, degrade their morale and will to fight against future Russian
aggression.

Since the return of Russian aggression, the nations of eastern Europe have faced an onslaught of Russian active measures through social media. Although the Eastern Europeans have learned to cope, the US military is still woefully unprepared for countering Russia’s active measures, since it hasn’t addressed the Russian sympathizers in its own ranks.

The US military often conducts multinational exercises with Eastern
European allies with US soldiers frequently conducting train and assist
missions. Most US soldiers do this mission with the utmost honor and
professionalism, however, European allies need to know not all US
soldiers support this mission to counter Russian aggression. Eastern
European allies don’t know about a small subversive element within the
US military that is openly supportive of Vladimir Putin and hostile to
the multinational training mission to defend Eastern Europe.

Upon Barak Obama’s election to the US Presidency in 2008, a subversive movement with strong ties within the US military came into existence. Two influential subversive groups opposed to President Obama grew out of the racist far-right Patriot movement. These two subversive groups were the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters.The Oath Keepers and Three Percenters are home-grown, anti-US government extremist Patriot groups established immediately after the election of President Obama. They promote conspiracy theories against the US federal government, such as plotting to take away the rights of American citizens to gun ownership. These two Patriot groups have a small but significant influence within the U.S. military, due in large part to America’s gun culture, strong among the military and veterans.

The Kremlin was quick to take note of these racist Patriot groups and soon exploited the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) was quick to produce anti-Obama racist memes that spread rapidly on social media. These memes were extremely popular among both the Oath Keeper and Three Percenter social media community, who spread them within the US military social media community. Russian cyber actors sensed a unique opportunity to subvert the US military since many Patriots both Oath Keeper and Three Percenters are affiliated in some way with the US military; either active duty, reservists, contractors or retired.

Russian state media RT helped these groups, RT provided media coverage on many incidents of Oath Keeper resistance to US government authority. The Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, follow various conspiracy web sites and media programs which stressed to their viewers the ever-increasing overreach of the US federal government. Many of these conspiratorial sites offer a venue for Russia propaganda from the media outlets RT and Sputnik. Russian cyber actors stressed topics that appealed to the Patriot ideology of the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters; anti-United Nations, Anti-Globalism, anti-EU, Pro-Russian and gun rights associated with the US Constitution’s, 2nd amendment.

Post by The Three Percenters

These Patriot groups are highly susceptibility to Pro-Russian and
Pro-Putin propaganda. Between 2009 and 2017, Russia’s active measures
successfully influenced much of the Patriot movement in America,
especially the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters and turned them into a
Pro-Putin subversive element within the US military. These Patriot
groups are now subversive elements who view the Putin’s Russia with
greater respect than the US government or NATO allies.

The Oath Keepers took a decidedly strong pro-Russia stance in 2017 when they published a ZeroHedge article, against a US military deployment to Eastern Europe, ZeroHedge is a known site for spreading Russian disinformation.

The story echoed Russian talking points hostile to a US military
deployment to Eastern Europe. They failed to address Putin’s aggression,
but went out of their way to call the US deployment a “dangerous
escalation,” stating the “voices of reason were few and far between.”
The article called the US troop deployment a “provocation,“ even though
it was in response to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine.

The militaries of Ukraine and Eastern Europe shouldn’t ignore the
threat posed by the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters. The fact that
some US service members hold Pro-Putin sympathies should concern
everyone opposed to Russian active measures. Any interaction between US
forces and their Eastern European allies, such as multinational training
exercises, requires vigilance by all parties involved.

During multinational training exercises Eastern European forces need
to be vigilant of any US service members belonging to the Oath Keepers
and the Three Percenters and request their removal from the exercises.
These service members often add Velcro patches to the uniforms and
depict the logos in various ways. The Oath Keepers’ symbol is a military
tab bearing the words “Oath Keeper,” while Three Percenters usually
identify themselves by a logo depicting the roman numeral three
surrounded by 13 stars.

Prior to any multinational exercises, our Eastern European allies should include force protection and operational security (OPSEC) measures to detect and deter this subversive US home-grown threat. This might sound out of character coming from a former US military officer, but the US Department of Defense has no policy to restrict or reduce the subversive threat posed by the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, so it’s up to other NATO countries and Eastern European allies to deal with this task of minimizing the impact of these pro-Russian sympathizers. Failure to act will only further erode the NATO alliance and the militaries of Eastern Europe’s sense of mission and purpose, degrade their morale and will to fight against future Russian aggression.Mr. John Foley is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and career Intelligence Officer. He served 27 years in the U.S. military service with both the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Army. He had multiple combat deployments to Iraq with the 5th Special Forces, 101st Airborne Division and 1st Cavalry Division. His last active duty assignment was with NORAD-USNORTHCOM. He currently lives in Colorado. His email is at: foley.john34@gmail.com

(c) EuromaidanPress

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10 comments

“Eastern European allies don’t know about a small subversive element within the US military that is openly supportive of Vladimir Putin and hostile to the multinational training mission to defend Eastern Europe.”

If this is true, WTF are they doing serving in the US military? Maybe they need to move to Russia and join Putin’s army. It’s the first time I’ve heard about this, maybe our US subscribers have more info?

I believe that the number of far right subversive groups in the United States military is very small. We have a zero tolerance policy for right wing anti government extremists and I believe that the number of Putin supporters is much smaller.
The biggest problem is that far right groups encourage younger members to join the military to acquire skills. Also these groups contain a large number of veterans who leave the service frustrated or disenfranchised are most at risk. “Some may feel ostracized, like they can’t relate [to civilians]. They’re seeking a sense of community.” Some find that community in far-right extremist groups or anti-government militias.

I’ve never heard of either of them. I also agree with SA. If there were any freelancers in the US military they would be sent home in their underwear in 5 minutes. Besides, we know how the left likes to employ projection so I wouldn’t be surprised if these wackos are really Antifa or photoshop Savushkina RTrolls.

The bit about oathkeepers is BS. I know nothing of the 3 percenters except what has been published in the leftist press, and so can not be trusted. I know Oathkeepers, and the good Colonel knows nothing of them. The article is, therefore, propaganda.

It is strange that a 27-year intel officer couldn’t do anything about this while serving but now writes an article asking Europe for help. As if any ruSSki sympathizers currently in the U.S. armed forces wouldn’t be skinned alive or chased out of the country ala Ed Snowden…

Just done a little digging and I’m surprised that EuromaidanPress published this article. The site for these 3% ers was effectively closed down over 3 years ago. Here is part of the last article published, seems like the authorities caught up with him.

“A couple of days ago, I received some news that ended up shaking me to my very core. After a great deal of consideration, I have decided to close the doors of the Sipsey Street Irregulars. Effective immediately, this blog not be updated or monitored. I know this quite sudden, but I know you guys will keep on going just fine without it.”

BTW this US Colonel does not exist, but this guy does, and he’s the only google entry I could find. His name is John Foley, a former Lieutenant General in the British army. Coincidence!